Pte Manning's leaks enabled Wikileaks to publish sensitive messages between US diplomats and records of military incidents in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a cockpit video showing a US Apache helicopter killing 12 people in the Iraqi capital in 2007.

The revelations caused significant embarrassment to the US government.

Responding to Pte Manning's statement of apology to the court last week, Wikileaks said the soldier's "forced decision to apologise to the US government in the hope of shaving a decade or more off his sentence must be regarded with compassion and understanding".